Last updated on July 20th, 2023 at 05:04 pm
Former president Donald Trump announced that he is a target of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s federal criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election he lost. What are the likely charges and what might the ramifications be?
Former FBI Special Agent Asha Rangappa listed her thoughts on the likely charges for ABC News, noting the big thing she’s waiting to see is whether Jack Smith “goes there” regarding incitement or insurrection charges.
Watch here:
My thoughts this am for @ABCNewsLive on Trump's target letter and what we might expect to see in terms of charges. (I'm visiting family and in my niece's bedroom😂) pic.twitter.com/9FpKLhGeeh
— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) July 18, 2023
Rangappa said if there’s going to be an indictment, it is imminent and she’d expect it in the next few weeks.
“I’m expecting to see perhaps conspiracy charges related to the fake electors scheme, these would be making false statements to government officials, conspiracy to obstruct a proceeding of congress — that’s also a separate crime,” Rangappa told ABC Live.
“And the big thing that I am waiting to see if Jack Smith is going to go there, is whether they’re going to charge Trump with any crime related to incitement or insurrection, which would really go to directly to his words and his intent to rile up the the crowd to enrage in violent behavior.
“That would have the highest constitutional issues involved of free speech. I’m interested to see whether Jack Smith is willing to take on that battle,” she finished.
While a person can run for office if charged with insurrection, Rangappa told a commenter that they cannot hold public office if convicted under 18 U.S.C. 2383.
Donald Trump has been indicted on thirty-seven federal criminal counts in Miami and thirty-four felony counts in New York. Donald Trump calls all of these indictments witch hunts and Republicans accuse the separate prosecutors of having political motives, while failing to note that the FBI is run by a Republican.
Scott MacFarlane reported that the hearing in Trump’s Florida federal criminal case was set to begin around 2 PM on Tuesday, just hours after Trump announced he was a target of the investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election after his defeat.
As the indictments close in around Donald Trump, Republicans must face the fact that if front-runner Trump were to win their nomination for president, there’s the possibility that he might not be able to take office even if he managed somehow to win.
And given Trump’s profound loss in 2020, it is unlikely that he, as a many times indicted, twice impeached candidate who mismanaged the pandemic would be able to unseat an incumbent who is doing his job and has brought such economic success to the U.S. as it recovers from the pandemic.
It’s rather silly to suggest that the indictments are politically motivated, given that the one person Democrats know they can beat because they already did is Donald Trump, and that was before he was wounded by the multiple indictments. Donald Trump gets out the Democratic vote and gets small donors to activate.
But the fact remains, Republicans probably want to run a candidate who could actually take office were they to win.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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